ILS Human Rights

End It Movement at Immaculata-La Salle Spreading awareness...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:00:35 -0400

End It Movement at Immaculata-La Salle

Spreading awareness about human trafficking through facts and a special presentation by a real survivor of human trafficking, Ms. Katerina Rosenblatt.

SLAVERY IS WRONG. YOU KNOW IT. WE KNOW IT. AS A COUNTRY,...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:16:00 -0400

SLAVERY IS WRONG.

YOU KNOW IT. WE KNOW IT. AS A COUNTRY, WE’VE OFFICIALLY KNOWN IT SINCE 1863. BUT HERE’S SOMETHING YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW — SLAVERY STILL EXISTS. WE WANT EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE 27 MILLION MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN, JUST LIKE THEM, LIVING IN THE SHADOWS. IN BROTHELS. IN FACTORIES. IN QUARRIES. WORKING AS SLAVES. IN 161 COUNTRIES. INCLUDING OUR OWN. WE ARE HERE TO SHINE A LIGHT ON SLAVERY. NO MORE BONDAGE. NO MORE SEX TRAFFICKING. NO MORE CHILD LABORERS. NO MORE, STARTING NOW.

- Source: EnditMovement.com

Shine a Light on Slavery

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:14:34 -0400

Shine a Light on Slavery:

The End It Movement is dedicated to spreading awareness on modern slavery: human trafficking. Click the link above to learn more, donate to the cause, or just make sure that YOU make a difference.

The first step to making a change is being aware.

Today, there are 200,000 slaves working in the United States.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:10:57 -0400

Today, there are 200,000 slaves working in the United States.:

And you thought slavery ended during the Civil War?

17,000 more slaves will be trafficked next year.

Today, there are 27 million slaves worldwide.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:09:10 -0400

Today, there are 27 million slaves worldwide. :

That’s more than any time in recorded history.

Thank you to everyone for following and staying informed!

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:07:00 -0400

Thank you to everyone for following and staying informed!

30 Things You Can Do During Genocide Awareness Month

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:47:28 -0400

30 Things You Can Do During Genocide Awareness Month

April is Genocide Awareness Month.

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:46:43 -0400

Genocide is the systematic killing of a group of people, especially by ethnic group or race. A promise was made after the Holocaust: “Never again.” Sadly, history has resulted in many “agains” and all of them have resulted in innumerable deaths worldwide. The point of Genocide Awareness Month is to be aware. Don’t stand by and watch. And remember to always respect the rights of others regardless of skin color, race, sexual orientation, etc, because in the end, we’re all human.

It happens in Wales, it happens in the U.S.A., it's a GLOBAL market

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:51:42 -0500

It happens in Wales, it happens in the U.S.A., it's a GLOBAL market:

“None of us should think it’s not happening in our communities because sadly it really is.”

Anti-Gay Legislation Gaining Ground in Uganda, Nigeria

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:43:07 -0500

Anti-Gay Legislation Gaining Ground in Uganda, Nigeria:

In Nigeria, a bill advancing in the House of Representatives would outlaw relationships between LGBT people – proposing jail sentences of 14 years for same-sex couples who wed, up to 10 years for public displays of affection like kissing, and threatening critical programs such as HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives.

Tomorrow is the International Day of Peace!

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:38:12 -0400

Peace starts at home. Peace starts with you. Think of one way you can contribute to world peace, and do it. Don’t let Peace Day pass by without doing something to contribute to the good of the world.

Join the movement on http://peaceoneday.org/

We’re back! The International Day of Peace is coming up on...

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:55:37 -0400

We’re back! The International Day of Peace is coming up on September 21. What will you do to attain peace at home and abroad?

Peace starts with you!

US forces join jungle search for Kony

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:29:00 -0400

In one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth - in what British explorers called Africa’s “Zone of Inaccessibility” - Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony is being pursued by four African armies with support from 100 US special forces soldiers. The BBC’s Dan Damon is one of the few journalists to have visited the US military mission deep in the forests of Central Africa.

The airstrip at Obo in the Central African Republic is little more than a stretch of dirt track. Our single engine plane takes nearly four hours to reach Obo from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and “kangaroos” its landing.

As the propeller slows, we are met by the small detachment of US special forces. They are Navy Seals, the same force that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Here, as far away as you can get from the sea in any direction in Africa, I meet Captain Greg. For security reasons, special forces soldiers are reluctant to give you more than their rank and first name.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. It is a rapid-fire list: “Logistical improvements, medical capabilities, planning operations and also incorporating intelligence into the operations to make them more effective.”

So how about using the United States’s legendary electronic intelligence to track Mr Kony down?

“That’s really not what we’re here to bring, we’re here to assist and advise the partner nations,” says Capt Greg.

Dense jungle

However sophisticated the US spy satellites and drones, it is not certain they would help in this terrain anyway.

All around Obo is what the military calls “triple canopy” jungle - thick undergrowth and trees so close and lush, they blot out the sky.

You could hide a fully equipped army in this forest, let alone a few hundred experienced bush fighters like the Lord’s Resistance Army.

According to fighters who have dared to escape their sinister leader, the LRA, once 2,000 strong, now totals around 300. They include those abducted in recent raids in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I saw that guy with my eyes, and the way he is operating I believe that he has the traditional spirits.”

- Mugaga MaikoFormer LRA abductee

This is where Mr Kony moved after being chased out of Uganda in 2006. The Ugandan army, the UPDF, pursued him but failed to catch him, despite getting close on a number of occasions.

The man in overall charge of the US Africa Command (Africom) is General Carter Ham. He emphasises that US soldiers will not be out on patrol in the jungle tracking Mr Kony, but he acknowledges that that is what a lot of Africans think is going to happen.

“I call it ‘Man On The Moon’ syndrome - if America can put a man on the Moon, why haven’t we caught Joseph Kony? But we are there to work with our partner forces from the countries of Central Africa,” says Gen Ham.

However small the LRA, its reputation and the spirit powers that many believe Joseph Kony can call on mean that even one man with a gun entering a village will scare the inhabitants away from their homes and farmland for years.

‘Like a ghost’

In Gulu, northern Uganda, which has seen no LRA activity for more than five years, people still live in fear of Mr Kony.

Three-year-old Betty was fathered by LRA leader Joseph Kony with abductee Adye Sunday

There, we met Mugaga Maiko, who was abducted when he was 15 and spent three years as Mr Kony’s escort.

“I saw that guy with my eyes, and the way he is operating I believe that he has the traditional spirits,” says Mugaga.

“The reason I say that is you can find he is not among you when he is there. He has disappeared. That is why I say that Kony has the spirit, just like a ghost!”

All too real is the experience of Adye Sunday, captured when she was 13 and taken by Kony to add to his tally of “wives” - he is said to have had more than 80 - and held for 10 years.

I found Adye in a rehabilitation centre in Gulu, making cakes for sale. With her is her three-year-old daughter Betty, fathered by Mr Kony. She has a seven-year-old boy by Mr Kony as well.

“The people need security, and they need to know that all the health and other services they are getting now from aid organisations will follow them when they go back to their villages in the bush.”

- Maria WangechiWorker for medical charity Merlin

Adye talks in a hushed monotone about her life in the bush, even when she tells us about the time Mr Kony’s group was fleeing the Ugandan army and she was shot in the leg.

“What are your hopes?” I ask.

“I want a bicycle so I can sell the cakes more widely and make more money to bring up my children,” she says.

“With my leg, I can’t walk far. A bicycle would help a lot.”

Mr Kony has released a large number of women and children like Adye and Betty in the past three years, not out of any compassion, according to the social workers trying to help them, but because they slow him down now he needs to keep on the move to avoid the four armies searching for him.

Impact

The men who come out of the bush are more likely to have made their own escape. One reason is Radio Zereda in Obo, which broadcasts advice and information on UN camps to help those trying to flee the LRA.

The main DJ at Radio Zereda - Zereda means “peace” in the local Zande language - is Emmanuel Daba, who was himself abducted in 2008, along with 76 others seized in a series of raids in that year.

“It’s time to make an end to your time with the LRA,” he chants over dance music, with the signal beamed from a tall transmitter mast funded by the US.

A former LRA abductee, Emmanuel Daba now broadcasts appeals for people to escape from the rebel militia.

The small US special forces unit in Obo has had an impact disproportionate to its size. Maria Wangechi from the British medical charity Merlin told me that the presence of the US soldiers has allowed people to till their fields within a radius of 25km from the town.

“They were restricted to 5km,” she says. But the threat continues.

“The last attack was about seven days ago,” she adds.

“The people need security, and they need to know that all the health and other services they are getting now from aid organisations like Merlin will follow them when they go back to their villages in the bush.”

That is the only positive potential outcome so far for these communities now blighted by Mr Kony’s LRA.

The world knows they are there, at last, because of US pressure group Invisible Children and its 30-minute documentary Kony2012, and because the US has sent troops.

The local betting is that Joseph Kony is more likely to die in the forest than appear in the dock in The Hague as an indicted war criminal.

Whatever brings his reign of terror to an end, the people of these remote communities in Central Africa might eventually find their lives and livelihoods are improved by all the global attention they are now getting.

“Not Just Kony” ― a campaign launched around...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:39:00 -0400

“Not Just Kony” ― a campaign launched around Immaculata-La Salle High School to raise awareness about the use of child soldiers worldwide. Kony isn’t the first, or only, warlord to use children in armed conflicts. Our hope is not only to raise awareness, but also inspire others to take action.

If you want to know more, click on these links:

UNICEF / Child Soldier Relief Organization /

Human Rights Watch / International Coalition

Ugandan troops play jungle cat and mouse with Kony

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:22:21 -0400

By Richard Lough

It is tough terrain that favors the hunted.

At times the Ugandan soldiers cover as little as three kilometers a day, laboring through hanging vines and dense foliage that cut visibility to a few meters and wading chest-deep through crocodile-infested rivers.

The 58-man special operations group, codenamed 77-kilo, is at the forefront of a reinvigorated international drive to close the net on the sadistic Kony and the remnants of his depleted Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group.

The deployment of some 100 U.S. military advisers to the region late last year to support the hunt raised hopes Kony’s decades-long campaign, notorious for the rebels’ practices of hacking off limbs and abducting children, was doomed.

However, in the steamy forests straddling the borders of Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, the LRA’s favored hideouts since it fled its native Uganda, Kony remains a master of the hostile environment.

“We’re hungry to hunt these guys down and take them back home, but it’s a tough task,” said Private James Mukundane, a sturdy warrior with a broad smile.

Ugandan commanders believe Kony and his two most senior lieutenants, who all face war crimes charges, are in a band of territory several hundred kilometers wide, feeding on wild yams and stolen cattle and drinking from rivers.

Uganda’s military estimates the LRA has been reduced to no more than 200 fighters in CAR. Pockets of LRA fighters also remain in Congo. Moving in small groups and avoiding the use of satellite phones and radios, they are hard to intercept.

REBEL HIDEOUT

Less than an hour into 77-Kilo’s patrol, the troops, sweat pouring down their brows, encounter nomadic cattle herders. They claim they are from the north of the country but more likely are from Sudan’s Darfur region or neighboring Chad.

Under gentle questioning, they deny any contact with the LRA since the middle of 2011.

It is an unlikely story. Air surveillance images used to help coordinate the search for enemy combatants indicate suspected rebel movements in the area in recent weeks.

Slowly, an Arabic-speaking trooper coaxes the hardest intelligence the squad has received in weeks from Harun Issa, who crouches down and begins sketching a map in the dirt.

“Five days ago your forces were just here, southeast of where we are now,” Issa said, jabbing his cane into the dust to mark a point along the river Chinko.

“The distance between your men and them, you could walk in about 20 minutes,” he said. The rebels had raided his family’s herd twice in the last few days, once in a group of 80 fighters and abducted youngsters.

The rebels’ hideout was in a large wooded hollow on the eastern bank of the Chinko, said Issa, whose children had earlier stumbled upon the camp while collecting water.

“Today is a step forward,” said the squad’s commander, Lieutenant Harold Olet.

It is also a morale booster for Olet’s men. Their last contact with the rebels was a brief firefight with two LRA reconnaissance fighters in January. Before that, they had had no contact since September.

Now, in exchange for sugar and medicine, Issa will lead the hunting squad to the rebel group’s last known position. Three other hunting squads have been drafted in to support the raid.

REVENGE

Kony, a self-styled mystic leader who at one time wanted to rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten Commandments, fled northern Uganda in 2005, roaming first the lawless expanses of South Sudan, then the isolated northeastern tip of Congo.

In December 2008, Uganda launched Operation Lightning Thunder, dispersing the rebels and pushing them north into CAR. More than three years later, Uganda’s force commander Colonel Joesph Balikudembe said the LRA’s battle was now to survive.

“We have weakened the LRA in terms of numbers, in terms of weaponry and in terms of the will to fight,” said Balikudembe, speaking at the force’s main operating base in Nzara, South Sudan.

But regional security forces have failed to land a knockout blow on Kony, who was thrust into the spotlight this year when a video highlighting the mutilations, rapes and murders carried out by his drugged, vicious fighters went viral on the internet.

There are hopes the U.S. forces may prove the game-changer, swinging the cat-and-mouse hunt in Uganda’s favor, though Washington’s exact role remains vague.

U.S. President Barack Obama, outlining the troops’ mission, made clear they would be trainers and advisers to the hunters but would not engage in combat except in self-defense.

Several clean-cut U.S. soldiers were spotted in Nzara and Djema, the Ugandan army’s forward operating base about 200 km inside CAR, but they deflected questions with broad smiles.

Balikudembe said they were helping with logistics and intelligence. “We are using our American advisers to see if they can make any interceptions,” he said.

Close to the river Chinko, Private Jimmy Odong prepared for 77-kilo’s advance on the suspected rebel camp.

The LRA kidnapped Odong and his five brothers in 1994. Then 13, his first order was to bludgeon to death his younger brother who could not keep up with the abducted group.

Killing and looting became routine, his teenage conscience numbed to the atrocities he was committing. Eight years after he escaped, Odong is now one of the hunting squad’s “pseudo men”.

Clad in tatty fatigues and a beaded necklace, his hair in dreadlocks, Odong’s role is to infiltrate rebel outposts, relaying intelligence to the squad in preparation for attack.

“I know their patterns of movement, I know their tactics, I can talk openly with them,” Odong said.

The stakes are high. One false move, one incorrect answer and his cover is blown. But Odong’s desire to avenge his lost childhood drives him on.

“I hope we get Kony, that the army hands him over to the Hague and he answers the charges against him.”

Photo

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:57:24 -0400

Photo

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:39:55 -0400

Take Action for Worldwide Child Soldier Relief

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:27:00 -0400

Take Action for Worldwide Child Soldier Relief:

Want to know more about children in armed conflicts? Click here

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:54:27 -0400

Want to know more about children in armed conflicts?

Click here

Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War,...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:20:00 -0400

Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War, speaks about the devastating effects of armed conflict on children.

For more information, go to: http://www.unicef.org